Earlier Deutsche Bank fire not reported

(New York- WABC, September 17, 2007) (WABC) -- It turns out there was another fire at the former Deutsche Bank building that was never reported to the FDNY weeks before the deadly blaze. It's an Eyewitness News Investigators exclusive.

The fire department was never called to a smaller and earlier fire in the condemned and contaminated building -- and that raises a most disturbing question: if the department had been notified and known about the dangers in the building, could the deaths of two firefighters have been prevented?

The Investigators Jim Hoffer has more.

Much of the news about the Deutsche Bank fire has focused on bureaucratic blundering at the FDNY. But in a report, it's the owners and operators at the project site that may have blundered by letting the fire department completely out of the loop about an earlier fire.

Twenty five maydays during the Deutsche Bank fire, it is a miracle more firefighters didn't die. But now there's evidence perhaps that the entire incident and the two fatalities could have been avoided had someone paid more attention to this.

It's a report from an EPA inspector, obtained by Eyewitness News, that reveals that just 18 days earlier, a small fire broke out just one floor above where firefighter Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino died.

The inspector notes in his July 31st visit "that netting outside of the building had caught fire from sparks generated from hot cutting." <p He further observes that "John Galt personnel utilized water and fire extinguishers to put out the fire."

"This document shows there were fires occurring in the building. This is a gigantic red flag for people that fire safety needed to be looked at in this building," said John Jay College of Fire Science Professor Glen Corbett.

But we've confirmed that no one at the Deutsche Bank site ever called the FDNY about the July 31st fire, even though the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's emergency action plan specifically states that in the event of a fire, the contractor must "call 911."

"Had they been notified there was a real likelyhood that steps would have been taken to ensure fires didn't occur, there would have been much more scrutiny," Corbett said.

This construction safety attorney goes one step further.

"If they had done what they should have done, reported this accident, had proper inspection by fire department,this second fire would not have happen because the job would have been shut down," said construction safety expert Jeffrey Manheimer.

A spokesman for the LMDC, which has oversight for the project, says "the fire was not big enough to call the FDNY. It was a small fire that only required the use of a fire extinguisher."

But an FDNY spokesperson told us simply, "We should have been called."

The construction safety expert offers one reason that they weren't.

"They buried it .... time is money on these construction projects ... I understand a substantial bonus if they complete the project under schedule ... that's always an incentive," Manheimer said.

One firefighter told us had the FDNY been called on the earlier fire, they may have discovered that the stand-pipe had been dismantled.

We should note though that the fire department also failed to conduct mandatory fire inspections.

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